Jalapeño poppers, or jalapeño bites, are

jalapeño The jalapeño ( , , ) is a medium-sized chili pepper pod type cultivar of the species ''Capsicum annuum''. A mature jalapeño chili is long and hangs down with a round, firm, smooth flesh of wide. It can have a range of pungency, with Scovi ...

pepper Pepper or peppers may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant ** Black pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ** Bell pepper ** Chili ...

s that have been hollowed out, stuffed with a mixture of

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...

spices A spice is a seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garni ...

, and sometimes ground

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

, and

breaded Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thickeni ...

and deep fried. They are a common dish on appetizer menus in chain restaurants. They are sometimes called armadillo eggs, especially if wrapped in bacon or sausage meat to give the appearance of an

armadillo Armadillos (meaning "little armored ones" in Spanish) are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata. The Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae are the only surviving families in the order, which is part of the superorder Xenarthra, along wi ...

shell. The term has been used since around 1972 in Texas, antedating the trademark on "Jalapeño Poppers". As

chile relleno The chile relleno (, literally "stuffed chile") is a dish in Mexican cuisine that originated in the city of Puebla. In 1858, it was described as a "green chile pepper stuffed with minced meat and coated with eggs". The most common pepper used is ...

can be made with jalapeño, the jalapeño popper is probably a

Tex-Mex Tex-Mex cuisine (from the words ''Texan'' and ''Mexican'') is an American cuisine, American cuisine that derives from the culinary creations of the Tejanos, ''Tejano'' people of Texas. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others i ...

version of that dish. The name Armadillo Eggs likely comes from the perceived similarity to

Scotch egg A Scotch egg is a boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, coated in breadcrumbs and baked or deep-fried . Origin The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives the first instance of the name as of 1809, in an edition of Maria Rundell's ''A New System of ...

s. When smoked or grilled and stuffed with sausage, they are also referred to as A.B.T or Atomic Buffalo Turds. Joey "Jaws" Chestnut holds the Major League Eating record for jalapeño poppers, eating 118 in 10 minutes at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

on 8 April 2006.

Trademark

On April 30, 1992, Anchor Food Products applied for and later received a trademark on "Jalapeño Poppers"; on "Jalapeño Poppers" used for "processed vegetables" however, the word "Poppers" had been trademarked in 1983 by the Poppers Supply Company of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, for use with popcorn. On September 27, 1993, the Poppers Supply Company successfully applied for a trademark on "Poppers" when used for "coated and breaded vegetable pieces", which they held until the trademark was transferred to Anchor Food Products on September 12, 2001. On September 25, 2001,

Heinz The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six conti ...

announced that it had completed the acquisition of the Poppers brand; however, a third party,

McCain Foods McCain may refer to: * McCain (surname), a surname (includes a list of persons and characters) Companies * McCain Foods Limited, a producer of frozen foods * McCain, Inc., privately held American manufacturing company headquartered in Vista, ...

, acquired Anchor's production facilities. Leon's Texas Cuisine launched a line of cheese-stuffed, breaded, fried jalapeño product in 1985 called Jalitos; the company claims it is the original such product that was nationally distributed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jalapeno popper Tex-Mex cuisine Appetizers Stuffed vegetable dishes Deep fried foods American vegetable dishes

Trademark

See also

References